Bally Corp. reverses losses, still mum on Tropicana development plans

The Providence, Rhode Island-based company destined to buy operations at the Tropicana suddenly has a lot on its plate.

A year ago, Bally’s Corp., which owns a horse track in Colorado and 14 casinos, including one at Lake Tahoe, offered to buy operations at the Tropicana for $308 million from real estate investment trust Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. Bally’s, which also was named the winning bidder for the sole gaming license in Chicago on Thursday, is completing plans for the Tropicana, currently operated by Penn National Gaming.

“We’ve said for a long time that we’ve got a very substantial lend bank that we will tap for significant strategic opportunities for the business,” Bally’s CEO Lee Fenton said in a Thursday morning earnings call with investors. “I think we can do that for Chicago if we win that bid and I think the same is true for Tropicana.”

The call occurred before the Chicago announcement.

Fenton said he’s still not ready to provide any details about plans for the Tropicana. In the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February, he also remained silent on any details.

But since February, Gaming & Leisure Properties Chairman, President and CEO Peter Carlino said in his company’s earnings call Monday that representatives of his company and Bally’s met in April with representatives of the Oakland A’s about possibly locating a Major League Baseball stadium at the 35-acre Tropicana site. It was unclear if and how the resort would be redesigned with a stadium.

Bally’s — which is unaffiliated with the Strip resort that bears that name — reported revenue more than tripled and reversed a net loss in the quarter that ended March 31. The company reported net income of $1.9 million, 3 cents a share, on revenue of $548.3 million. For the same quarter a year earlier, Bally’s reported a net loss of $10.7 million, 30 cents a share, on revenue of $182.3 million.

Fenton said the lifting of mask mandates and the allowance of smoking in the company’s Rhode Island properties enabled the highest revenue performance there since 2019.

Bally’s on Wednesday opened its Arizona sports-wagering operations, leveraging partnerships with the Women’s National Basketball Association Phoenix Mercury and Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fenton said the company is keeping a cautious eye on New York sports-betting operations because of the high tax environment and that the company plans to enter the Ontario, Canada, market in the summer.

“In the second half (of 2022), we will focus on states where there are high casino opportunities, or where we expect there to be high casino opportunities in the near term,” Fenton said.

The company also recently signed a marketing deal with the National Football League Cleveland Browns, putting the company in markets in 18 states.

Internationally, Fenton said double-digit percentage increases in Asia offset slumping markets in Great Britain for the quarter.

Bally’s shares, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, fell $1.36, 4.5 percent, in heavy midday trading Thursday.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.